Western Sydney University capitulates against a $10m CAM industry tsunami. Cheerio science!

We’ve seen it last year and now we see it again. Early in 2016, Western Sydney University (WSU) awarded an honorary fellowship to Judy Jacka. She is the founding member of the Jacka Foundation of Natural Therapies with links to notorious anti-vaccination groups, and who openly and fully support all types of quackery, from energy medicine to horse shit as medicine. Any scientist might now want to know why would any university do such a thing. As always, the world revolves around money. If you donate a substantial amount of money to WSU, a couple of million dollars in Judy’s case, it seems that WSU will then add their weight behind whatever you stand for, and hence give it credibility and legitimacy. They will even reward you for it with an honorary “award” – probably in the hope that might donate more money in future.

2017 is however quite interesting. A couple of weeks ago the Vice-Chancellor of WSU gave a speech where he proclaimed that universities should stand up for facts and the truth because “if we don’t, who will?” Interesting, because he is fully aware of the attempts by a few brave scientists over the past couple of years, to indeed stand up for the truth and who are trying to persuade WSU, that it is not in the best interest of science, scientific training and the Australian public, to support and give credibility to pseudoscientists such as Judy Jacka – but WSU simply quashed all these (ongoing) attempts. His failure to stand up for the truth led to a nomination for the “Bent Spoon” award bestowed upon the “perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle” – and they even tried to quash this as well. The good news, however, is that their attempts to block this nomination failed spectacularly – you can read about it here, here and here.

WSU could have stood up for the truth after their Bent Spoon debacle but, no, it seems that such a brave move would have cost them too much money. The big news was published a week ago. The controversial supplement company Blackmores, who made the headlines recently for grossly misrepresenting research results, donated a cool untied $10 million to WSU. And in a show of force, indicating that WSU has learned nothing, and in all likelihood, will never put science and the health of the Australian public before money, bestowed an honorary doctorate upon Marcus Blackmore, the founder of Blackmores – why? because he is ‘loaded’.

WSU has now made it as clear as daylight. They have capitulated against the big money, making them nothing more than a for-profit company. But who will now stand up for facts and the truth, Mr Glover? In their world it seems that as long as you give them a substantial amount of money they will promote and defend whatever you are trying to sell – simple stuff. Surely, WSU and the National Institute of Complementary Medicine, who received these funds with open arms, and who continue to mislead the Australian public deserves another Bent Spoon nomination in 2017?

What can you do about all of this?

The bureaucracy involved is extremely complex, so the best thing to do is to stop using their products and treatments – e.g. prevention. Inform yourself and your family and friends about how these people play their game and what the dangers are, regarding these ‘treatments’. ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ provides valuable healthcare information as well as the website of Prof Edzard Ernst, where he discusses everything complementary medicine (what works and what doesn’t). If you are interested in receiving automatic updates regarding the NICM and what they are up to, you can always follow my Blog, Twitter or connect on LinkedIn. I have also started a FaceBook page where I regularly post contents regarding the NICM, and complementary medicine in general(@CompleMedQuacks).

Will keep you posted regarding the outcome of the 2017 Bent Spoon awards (the NICM has again been nominated), and please, ‘Like’ and share this article via FaceBook etc. – see options below.